Densho Digital Archive - Yooichi Wakamiya Interview (denshovh-wyooichi-01-0021)

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RP: Do you recall the, a time in camp when people were sent to Tule Lake, the segregants, the "loyalty questionnaire"?

YW: Yes, we had, I barely understood what was going on there, but I had heard that several people did transfer out of our camp and went to Tule Lake, but to this day I can't remember who it was. And there was one family that I kind of remember went, and the only reason I remember them is their son was studying Japanese for the idea that they may go to Tule Lake and back to Japan. Well, so that was the first and last time I saw him. They ended up in Tule Lake, I guess. Many years later, I find out that they got back to California and the father became very wealthy in Orange County as a farmer and he was donating money to the museum.

RP: Oh, Japanese American National Museum?

YW: Yeah. His family became quite well off with the land. Not the, not the fruits of his labors, but the land became very expensive and he sold it, he was forced to sell it at a profit. [Laughs] So he apparently decided it wasn't, it wasn't the right place to be in Japan. He came back. I said who'd want to go to a country that's devastated, but they did anyway. He said, "I made a mistake. I'm comin' back." So he came back. That was the only time I remember that. And I don't know who else went to Tule Lake. It's, there was conversations about it, but being adult level conversations, I don't know what they were talkin' about.

RP: How about also you were very close to Camp Shelby, not too far from there.

YW: Yeah, Camp Shelby, I know it by secondhand that, I guess the 442nd (Combat Team) was training down there, and one time they were permitted to come to our camp for recreation, so the ladies of the camp put on a dance for them and they came. But the problem that they had, and I sensed it right away, was there was animosity between the members of the Armed Forces, those from Hawaii and those from the mainland. And I got that drift right away. I heard there was, it may've even led to fisticuffs between the two groups. I don't know why, but I just heard that. And later on, I think I understand why now, but at that time it was kind of a puzzle to me. I said, you guys are fighting on the same side and you're fighting against each other? What's goin' on here? Yeah, well, the Japanese in Hawaii were raised quite different by those in California, and so there was a lot of animosity, I think. They thought, well you know when you talk to the people from Hawaii they're speaking some kind of a pidgin English and those in California were speaking straight English, so they didn't understand each other, for one. And they thought that might've been a problem for friction.

RP: Do you recall seeing Niseis in uniform, in the camp?

YW: Yes. They came to camp for the dance. In fact, one of our, in fact, they used our block for one of the dances, so they cleared the tables off to the side and used the cafeteria, if you will, where we ate, as a dance floor. So I remember that.